Friday, January 16, 2009

So now I have come back to dwell on a couple unfinished tasks-Reactivating the Post Modern Cadaver Magazine, and the remastering of the Roman Invasion Suite catalog.

The Post Modern Cadaver Magazine ran for two issues back in 2005-6 and featured stories and art that were setting the stage for the much longer book- Journey By Ferry To Celibate City Or Thigh Town (196pgs). I ran out of gas at the end of Journey By Ferry and the rest is a murky, messy, strange period. Issues no. 3 & 4 will deal with leaving kalamazoo, the brief stint in Chicago and feeling discombobulated in NYC again. lots of sketchbook things, stories, journal blah etc. Stay tuned.

The Roman Invasion Suite was a Kalamazoo band I played guitar for in 1996/1997. This band resides between my time in The Paraguay City Rollers 1993/1994, and The Bridge Over River Qua 2003-4. I have all of the DAT recordings we made for the 7", comp, and LP. I'll eventually find a studio in NY that has a DAT player/recorder and transfer those puppies and some rare cassette stuff for remastering. This will be the first time that stuff will be properly available. Everything else floating around was either culled from the vinyl or from horrible low-bit transfers. Should be a total of 15 tracks and a full 80 minutes of material. (news update: 6/1/09- i just found ten cassettes of Romans stuff, demos rehearsals and session alternate takes. Alot to sort through but when it's finished, it should be quite packed!)

News update! (7/6/09) The cassettes have been gone through, and it's pretty much the conclusion I came to in 1997. This is the track listing for the Roman Invasion Suite collection I'm putting together from original master sources-

1,2,& 4 are from The Siege of Port Theodora Sessions recorded at Western Michigan University Studios by Steve Versaw. While this isn't the entirety of the sessions, they are in fact the best offerings. Sixth Small Jack and Carnations were also recorded and didn't really come off the way we wanted. The subsequent LP sessions provided better versions. "Driving Time In Five" was also recorded at this time but was more of where we were coming from rather than where we were going. Our early songs weren't that hot.

6-13 are from the "Plays For One" Lp sessions Recorded at WGNS studios (Washington D.C.) by Jeff Turner. This record was supposed to be released by Longbow Records but at the last minute instead they put out another band's album. We weren't very happy about that.

Anyways, I'll have the DAT tapes transferred and the extras coverted as soon as I can afford it. If I'm lucky, I'll get the whole thing mastered. I'll make a limited book/cd/ dvd version (yeah, with a show/art etc.) and also have a high quality version online for people to do whatever with. I just can't stand the idea that people are listening to these terrible low res versions.

Friday, January 2, 2009

Well, I'm very pleased to say that Mome #13 is now on the store shelves, and if your fave book store d/n carry it in the graphic novel section, you can either get it via a comics store or by ordering direct from Fantagraphics books or amazon or whatever. It's chocked full of fantastic artists and will never fail to look impressive on the olde bookshelf. That said, I'm working on the contents for No. 15 which is always yielding new stories. On a completely unrelated note, does anybody have a complete set of all of the Velocity Girl singles and comp tracks on cd? A have quite a few on vinyl, but hell, it's quite difficult to find everything.

notes about the author

Artist, writer, and musician, Derek Van Gieson has been published by The New Yorker, Fantagraphics, Uncivilized Books, and The New York Times, amongst others. He is the author of three art/lit books, Shutdown Vol. 3, Journey By Ferry To Celibate City or Thigh Town, Enough Astronaut Blood To last The Winter, a graphic novel, Eel Mansions and a current member of Murder Shoes, as well as a former member of bands The Bridge Over River Qua, The Roman Invasion Suite, and The Paraguay City Rollers.